


You'd Better Believe It

by sea_level



Series: Extended AUgust [3]
Category: Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, POV Nick Carraway, POV Third Person, Pining, can't lie to your soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:27:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25066885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sea_level/pseuds/sea_level
Summary: In retrospect, Nick probablyshouldhave tried to lie more in his daily life if it meant that he would have figured out Jay Gatsby was his soulmate sooner.
Relationships: Nick Carraway/Jay Gatsby
Series: Extended AUgust [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811098
Comments: 13
Kudos: 269
Collections: AUgust 2020





	You'd Better Believe It

**Author's Note:**

> oh look it's 3 am again lol
> 
> Source of soulmate au idea from [here](https://zelong.tumblr.com/post/96773267607/)! Big thanks to [EnsignAdano](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnsignAdano/pseuds/EnsignAdano) for finding it!
> 
> again not proofread so if there's anything wrong, please let me know. I'll probably proof it at some point, but if you're reading this, I still haven't.

In retrospect, Nick probably _should_ have tried to lie more in his daily life if it meant that he would have figured out Jay Gatsby was his soulmate sooner.

* * *

The hydroplane glides smoothly a few inches above the surface of the water. It’s an oddly wonderful experience, one that Nick would likely never have if it weren’t for the fact that he’d met Gatsby the night before at his party. He wonders if Gatsby often offers these opportunities to other guests, but it seems rude to ask, so he doesn’t.

Instead, he asks, “So why did you decide to purchase a hydroplane in the first place?”

“Moments like this,” he says, and then frowns. Or, perhaps, Nick was mistaken because it’s gone in the next second and Gatsby is smiling again like nothing ever happened. “Really, what’s the use of all this wealth if you don’t have a little fun with it.”

Nick would find it odd to accuse Gatsby of not having fun, in fact, his parties seemed to imply the exact opposite.

The plane flies over a warm patch on the surface of the water and bounces slightly, immediately turning Nick’s attention back to the water around him. Nick isn’t a suspicious man by nature, so there’s really no reason to dwell.

* * *

The rumor mill spins more efficiently here than any of the finely crafted Dutch windmills that Nick had the opportunity to see while overseas. By the time he sees Gatsby again, or really when he truly gets the chance to talk with him again, his head is filled to the brim with all of the wildest theories and ideas that New York has to offer.

And when Gatsby turns to Nick, taking his eyes off the road in the process, and asks, “What do you think of me?” Nick can’t bring himself to brush off the question with a generic, _Well you seem like a nice enough guy._

So he tells the man he’s an enigma, that he’s interesting, that he’s impossible to pin down, and that he’d really like to learn more about him. It’s perhaps a touch more revealing than he’d expected, but that doesn’t make it any less sincere.

This seems to settle Gatsby greatly, so he takes the rest of the car ride to explain why a great many of the rumors were in fact false. When Nick inquires after his past, Jay—and really Nick should be calling him Jay by now, especially after the man had insisted he do so—just smiles, shakes his head, and tells Nick that that’s a story for another time.

* * *

Jay has always struck Nick as an incredibly earnest man if a bit out of place in the world he was living in, like a child in his father’s shoes. And maybe he was filling a role several sizes too large for his feet, but it wasn’t like Nick and even half the population of New York at this point were any different. He couldn’t judge, even if he wanted to.

Seeing Jay act around other people is...odd to say the least, like the man he knows and the man everyone else knows, are, in fact, two separate people.

Jay approaches conversations with other people like a problem to be solved, like if he says the right words and smiles at just the right times, he can leave with everything that he wants. All of that honesty just seems to slip away. Nick probably shouldn’t be as impressed as he is, should probably take some sort of issue with it, but it’s a hell of a thing to witness.

Yeah, maybe he’s starting to fall a little bit in love with Jay, but Jay’s a man and is hopelessly in love with the idea of Daisy. Nick can’t even begin to hold a candle to that kind of inferno.

* * *

His confidence in this particular worldly constant slips a little.

“You can’t repeat the past,” Nick says, as consolingly as possible. He wants to take Jay properly aside, far away from this party and explain that Daisy’s a different person now than the girl he’d met all those years ago, that _that_ particular version of Daisy is gone now, lost to the sands of time. Despite this, he can’t bring himself to say something so contrary to the mission statement of Jay’s entire life, so he says those five simple words instead, hoping that Jay will understand.

For a second, Nick thinks he might.

“Can’t repeat the past?” Jay asks, sounding almost like he might actually consider it.

It’s so drastically far from the reaction that Nick expected that he feels almost like he’s meddling in something he shouldn’t be.

Nick might love Jay, but all he really, truly wants is for Jay to be happy, and it’s hard to imagine Jay happy without achieving what he’d set out to do in the first place.

* * *

“This thing with Daisy,” Nick says. “I think you should stop it.”

“Any why on earth should I do that, Old Sport?” Jay asks, looking just about as perplexed as Nick feels.

Nick had meant to work up to it, to say it a little softer, a little less demanding. Still, it doesn’t change anything. He’s got a long mental list of reasons why, had spent the entire night before compiling them when he found that he’d been unable to fall asleep.

“Well for starters, Tom is a dangerous man.”

“I can handle dangerous men,” Jay challenges.

Nick sighs. “Jay, as much as I want to have faith in your ability to protect yourself, Tom has connections and a complete lack of ethical restraint. You’re already in a precarious position. You already shouldn’t be taking any risks.”

Jay scoffs.

“And Daisy,” Nick continues. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but she doesn’t love you, not like she used to. Jay, to her, you’re just a nostalgic reminder of a part of her life that she’s left behind. She won’t ever want you like you want her to.”

Jay visibly pales at this.

“What?” Nick asks. “Don’t have a rebuke for that one?”

“No,” Jay says, clearing his throat and looking visibly distraught. “I don’t. Old Sport—”

“What?”

“Nick. Please. Tell me a lie.”

Nick blinks. “You want me to tell you that Daisy still loves you?”

“No—well, yes, but no. No, just. Tell me a lie. It doesn’t matter what it is,” Jay says.

“Why would I do that?” Nick asks.

“Nick, please,” Jay begs.

Never one to deny Jay something, Nick opens his mouth to lie, to say that the sky is green or that money grows on trees or that Daisy still loves him and finds that he...can’t. He physically can’t lie to Jay.

“How long have you known?” Nick asks. It comes out pained, the force of the unsaid words having scraped heavily across his throat.

“Since the hydroplane.”

“You’ve known we were soulmates since the _hydroplane_ , and you never said anything?” Nick tries not to sound hysterical but fails miserably. It certainly doesn’t help that he’s sleep-deprived, raring to fight, and has just received the biggest news of his life in the most unorthodox way possible.

“I thought you knew!” Jay says. “Didn’t you ever notice that I’m the only person in your life that you can’t lie to?”

“Have you considered that maybe I’m just an honest man?” Nick asks.

“I’ve seen you lie before,” Jay argues. “You’ve lied to the staff before, and even to Tom and Daisy. I was _there_. I knew you were lying. But to me, you don’t. I can tell.”

“Maybe I just never had a reason to lie to you,” Nick says.

Jay must not have anything to say to that because he remains silent while Nick paces around the room for a few minutes before taking a seat in the chair across from Jay’s desk.

“Ignoring the fact that this changes literally everything for me, does this even change _anything_ for you? I mean, hell, aside from the fact that you thought that I knew, it’s not like you’ve learned anything new here,” Nick says.

Jay clasps his hands together, his expression carefully unreadable. “It changes things.”

“What things?”

“You didn’t ever acknowledge it! So I thought that maybe you weren’t interested!”

“And I’m interested now?” Nick asks.

“I don’t know,” Jay says, throwing up his hands and letting them fall into his lap. “I really don’t know much of anything anymore. If I were you, I wouldn’t be. What kind of person would be interested in someone who’s expressed their love for someone else?”

Nick groans and leans back into the chair. “Jay. I’m in love with you.”

Jay’s mouth falls open but nothing comes out.

“Me, Jay. I’m that kind of person,” Nick says. 

“Wait, but—”

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t even know we were soulmates,” Jay says weakly.

“That doesn’t change what I said.” Nick sighs. “And that fact that you’re in love with Daisy doesn’t change either, but if I can just ask for one thing from you, as your soulmate, can you let her go?”

“Nick—”

“Please.” Nick doesn’t want to sound desperate, but he can hear it clearly in his own voice.

“Nick,” Jay says, leaning across the table to cup Nick’s face in his hands, “anything you want, I’ll give to you.”

“Don’t,” Nick says. “Don’t lie to me.”

“We’re soulmates,” Jay says. “I _can’t_.”

“But—”

“Nick, I might not be able to lie to you, but I absolutely can lie to myself. I’ve known for a while now that Daisy and I were never going to happen. I just didn’t want to accept it, so I didn’t, and I lied to myself, and I told myself it would work, and I believed it. But then you came along and told me that I couldn’t change the past, and you were always there, and you were perfect and understanding and listening and I just never thought—” He breaks off.

“What?” Nick prompts.

“I was already so far into my own head, and you already knew how I felt about Daisy, I couldn’t just tell you that I was having second thoughts because of _you_. Because I wanted you. Especially because I thought you didn’t want me like that.”

“But I do,” Nick says.

“You do.” Jay nods, repeating it like he can hardly believe it.

Nick sags in his seat, the fight going out of him all at once. “Honestly, I expected to have to work a lot harder to get you to agree to that.”

“Well,” Jay says, “sorry to disappoint.”

Nick waves the apology off. “No, no, you could never.”

“For all you know,” Jay says, “I could be a terrible kisser.”

Nick almost chokes laughing. “I can’t even begin to tell you how little that matters to me right now. I can still barely believe any of this.”

“Well, until the moment you come around,” Jay says, “I’d better start getting my affairs in order. I can’t tell you how much of this place and how much of my day-to-day life is the way it is just because I wanted to get her attention.”

“I think I have a clue,” Nick says. He stands and walks around to the back of Jay’s desk so that they’re only inches apart. “Want to do something about that?”

Jay grins and says, “Why not?” so Nick leans down and kisses him.

Turns out, Jay is a wonderful kisser.

**Author's Note:**

> this particular soulmate au is comedy gold for like certain ships, but this is not one! I also did like...0 worldbuilding with this, and I...physically feel weird about it.
> 
> I wasted 20 mins finding a title and ended up going back to my rejected working title which I picked up from Believe It by Bad Religion even though that song has nothing to do with this fic.


End file.
